Dart 15 Winter TT at Datchet Water Sailing Club

 

For the first time in this winter series, the original scheduled date for the February TT was blessed with an entirely normal wind forecast that did not require postponement or cancellation.

Delighted to have a forecast that was not 1 knot or 30 knots, twelve sailors arrived at Datchet Water Sailing Club on a grey morning. The winds were a little lighter than expected but perfectly adequate for racing and it was good to see a decent turnout of the home club fleet for their Sunday racing too. It was also great to see George Stephen, long standing local fleet member, who popped down to watch the racing and catch up with old friends.

An early briefing from the Race Officer confirmed a square race course and every effort to minimize hanging around between races in the cold weather. Not least for the race management team themselves. The Race Officer then headed off to start the first club race. The plan was for our first start would slot in around the end of that race to minimize mixing of the fleets on the course. As any race officer will know, this requires some skilled timing to make it work, but they pulled it off very well.

After completing three exciting races the fleet returned ashore and were well fed from Datchet's galley, the fleet were dragged away from the televised rugby six nations long enough for Dave Russell, chief Dart 15 Pit Crew, to do the prize-giving.

With only two points separating the top four places and countback applied to determine second and third - it was another closely fought Winter TT. Congratulations to Liam for taking the overall win and to Steve in second, Jenny in third and Jason in fourth. The next and final stage of the Winter Series is at Grafham Water on Sunday 9th March.

Overall Results :-

Pos Boat Name Sail No Helm R1 R2 R3 Pts

1 No Quarter 2034 Liam Thom 1 2 2 3

2 Tigershark 2033 Steven Sawford 3 4 1 4

3 Catbert Too 2025 Jenny Ball 4 1 3 4

4 Dart 15 2037 Jason Clarke 2 3 6 5

5 Fly‑by‑Wire 2019 George Love 8 5 4 9

6 Ray Gall 2028 Ray Gall 6 8 5 11

7 EV Charging Systems 2035 Jon Pearse 5 9 8 13

8 Sootica 1965 Yvonne Pike 10 6 7 13

9 Miss Daisy 1347 Paul Tanner 7 7 10 14

10 Doris 1759 Lee Garton 9 12 9 18

11 Mystery Machine 1521 David Clarke 11 10 11 21

12 Ritardando 2016 Keith Chidwick 12 11 12 23